25 September 2017

Riyadh Rambles: Burjairi and the National Museum

During our trip to Riyadh earlier this year Mr EE and I followed the advice of friends and, after our visit to Masmak fort, took a car out to Burjairi, the gateway to Diriyah. A short drive from the centre of Riyadh, Diriyah was the initial home
of the Al Saud family and the capital of the First Saudi State (1744). The town is in the process of being
redeveloped with the aim of turning the old capital into an open air museum. It is not yet open to the public (we had
heard that it is possible to book private tours we had not got round to
arranging something) but it is possible to view the walls from the Burjairi
quarter. Designed to manage visitors
when Diriyah is open it is a pedestrianised area with gardens and a
lot of picnic spaces it is the perfect place to while away a few hours walking and enjoying the open spaces of an evening before choosing a restaurant for supper. In truth, until the museum opens there is not really much else to do. We eschewed the highly rated Najd House restaurant with its beautiful
décor and private dining areas, mostly because although it receives rave reviews
neither of us really enjoy the traditional foods it offers. For those who do, however, it would make the
perfect place to spend an evening. We will certainly be back, probably with the children, once the museum is fully open.

Burjairi

The following day we decided to visit the National
Museum. The museum site is huge and sprawling, it took us half an hour to find the entrance. This highly rated museum was,
sadly, almost empty and other than a VIP guest being guided through by minders
and security, we had the place to ourselves.
Entry costs are low, SAR10 per person and allows access to all eight
exhibition halls. These encompass: Man
and the Universe, Early Arabian Kingdoms, The Pre-Islamic Era, The Prophet’s
Mission, Islam and the Peninsula, The First and Second Saudi States, The
Unification and the Hajj and the Two Holy Mosques. Again this will be a place we return to, not least because Master EE is studying neolithic life in Saudi Arabia as one of his school topics this year.

Al the sections were interesting but the stand outs for me
were the displays about the Early Arabian Kingdoms and the Pre-Islamic
era. They were well designed and
informative. The section on the First
and Second Saudi states and the Unification were also very interesting, like
the Masmak Fort the day before it told us a lot about a period of history we
knew little about. They were not quite
as well presented or as rich in detail as the displays at Masmak, however,
which was a shame. The museum’s final
hall is dedicated to the Hajj and the two Holy Mosques and includes two huge
replicas of the Mosques. As non muslims
we are not permitted to visit Makkah or Medina so these replicas are the
closest we will get to seeing these beautiful and historic buildings.

Exhibition Hall in the Museum

We spent a little bit of time exploring the grounds (and
sneaking a peek at the car collection of King Abdul Aziz which is housed in a
different building) before going back to the hotel to get ready for the
evening, the event which had necessitated the trip in the first place. We had hoped to have the time to see the view
of Riyadh from the Sky Bridge in the Kingdom Tower but by the time we got there
it had closed.

National Museum Complex

We enjoyed our time in Riyadh and we will certainly return as there is lots to see and do there. Mr EE was back there a few weeks later,
however, and said that it really was not as much fun on his own, feeling rather
bleak and unfriendly. Like most places I
think, it is the people you see it with that make it.

About Me

I am a no longer 30 something global soul, a perpetual expat. I was born in the Netherlands to a Dutch/Irish Family. Since then I have lived in Norway, Nigeria, Turkey and Venezuela. I went to school and university in the UK. We decided to have an adventure and took our children and the dog(s) to live abroad, first to Kazakhstan and then to various locations in Malaysia. Our current home is in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
This blog is about how we muddle through daily life as expats and how things have changed from the adventures of my childhood.